I’m Thankful Four – Day #4

1.  I’m thankful for the relatives and friends who are coming to share Thanksgiving with us today.  Each of them makes this day special in their own unique way.

2. The food that will grace our table today – Turkey, stuffing(made by Molly my niece, no “holy smoke” stuffing this year from Kiki – if you want to know the story behind that click here. )Greek stuffing made by my husband, Florentine lasagna, mashed potatoes, sweet potato casserole, English pea salad, green salad, homemade French bread, cranberries, Nilla Praline cheesecake, cherry cheesecake, pumpkin pie and a few other yummy desserts.

3. The bustling about in the kitchen on the 2 days before Thanksgiving. Tuesday night Jennifer and I were in the kitchen doing the prep work to make the lasagna. She did most of the work. All I did was coach when necessary and slice the mozzarella cheese. We had a good time working together. On Thanksgiving eve, the hubby was in the kitchen working on his Greek stuffing, and Jen is making Nilla Praline Cheesecake and french bread.  Just the comaraderie of being in the kitchen together is cool.

4. The Thanksgiving holiday itself – Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. I enjoy the fact that it seems to be the least commercialized of all the holidays. It’s a day that really makes me stop and count my blessings, and life is more enjoyable when we stop to consider God’s goodness in our lives.

A HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO ALL MY BLOGGER FRIENDS!!

I’m Thankful Four – Day 2

1.

 

 

 

The Bible – I am so thankful for God’s Holy Word, the Bible. There is no other book like it! I can’t begin to tell you how many times I have received strength, encouragement and direction through the teaching, preaching and reading of the Word of God. This book is inexhaustible. It’s so amazing to read a passage you have read before and have God show you something that you didn’t see the last time you read. It is our road map to Heaven, and without it, we would be lost. Thank you, Lord, for you divinely inspired, infallible, holy,  powerful,  unchangeable Word!

2. My church – When I say the church, I don’t mean the building, although I am thankful to be in our present location. I am talking about the people, my brothers and sister in Christ. I’m thankful for the way my life has been blessed through rubbing shoulders with all these fine folks, and it is a joy when you can see your brothers and sister growing in God.

3.

 

 

 

Our house – We came close to losing our home several times this year, but somehow God has seen fit to keep us in it, and I’m very thankful. We’ve made some great memories here, and it would be hard to leave this place, so I’m thankful that God is helping us to work things out with our loan situation. Thank you to all of you who have been praying for us too.

4. My job – I really had no desire to go back to work after being at home for the last 13 years. I had no idea what I would do either. I thank God for answering prayer and blessing me with a good part time job. The pay is better than I expected, and it is rewarding to be able to work with these children and their families.  I’m believing God to use me to reach out to these with whom I have contact.

The Big Surprise

Do you enjoy surprises? Someone in our family is going to receive a big surprise today, and that’s all I can say until later. 

 

Okay, it’s Sunday evening, and it’s all over. We went to a surprise 50th birthday party for my wonderful brother-in-law, Mike. Everybody did a great job keeping this a secret. When him and his wife came to the door of their son Jeremy’s house, and everybody yelled “Surprise!”, Mike was stunned. Probably the neatest thing about this birthday was that Mike’s mom, who is in her 70’s was able to fly out from Chicago to be there for the shindig. She was hiding back in one of the bedrooms when he first came, and from a cell phone, she called him on the house phone there. His mom asked him if he was surprised and how the party was going. She told him that she wished she could be there. He said, “Are you sure you’re not already here? I’m going to look for you. You’re probably in the hallway.” What was really funny was as he said that, his mom was actually coming down the hallway. Mike was heading toward the hallway, and that is where they met. He was just joking about the possibility of her being there.

Mike and his mom.

 

It was a wonderful party with a fine mix of family and friends totaling around 40. We ate some delicious grub, participated in an Older Than Dirt Quiz (yipee! I wasn’t the high scorer), played a little game to see how much we knew about Mike(my brother Tom beat me by one point) and watched Mike open his gifts. Mike’s son Jeremy put together a very nice slide show presentation about Mike’s life. Probably the most touching thing of all was when the floor was opened up to any who wanted to share what Mike has meant to them or how he has influenced them. Over the years, my brother-in-law has been a home Bible study teacher, care pastor, musician and a great friend, and it was very special to hear of the godly influence that he has had in many lives that were represented there. I’d like to share a little in my next post on how Mike was instrumental in bringing the gospel to our family. For now, here are a few more pictures of his party.

Mike with long time friend, co-worker and brother in Christ, Calvin.

Mike’s cake – One of his hobbies is golfing.

Special “over the hill” hat

Mike and his new “over the hill” autograph dog, complete with reading glasses.

My sister Ann and I!

Wilderness Wonders

1Samuel 23:15

And David saw that Saul was come out to seek his life: and David was in the wilderness of Ziph in a wood.

1Samuel 23:16

And Jonathan Saul’s son arose, and went to David into the wood, and strengthened his hand in God.

This morning, as I was reading my Bible, these verses just seemed to leap out at me.  David was literally running for his life, running from King Saul who wanted to kill him.  He was in a wilderness, which in itself can be a very scary place. How blessed he was to have a friend in King Saul’s own son, Jonathan. The Bible says that Jonathan strengthened his hand in God.  No doubt, David was afraid at this time, for the first words out of Jonathan’s mouth in verse 17 are “Fear not.”

Sure, God could have come down Himself to David to assure him that everything was going to be allright, but most of the time it seems that God chooses to work through people. Sometimes it’s just reassuring to have someone with skin on, someone right there that you can see. I thought of the many times in my life when I have been afraid or discouraged. How many times has God sent someone to strengthen my hand in God! Many times it has been a preacher. Some times it has been a family member or close friend. God has even used bloggers before who had no idea what I was going through, but the words that they had written in a post ministered to me. Have you ever had your hand strengthened in God? I’m very grateful for the many times that I have felt the divine touch of God, but I’m also grateful for the times when he has used someone else with skin on to encourage me, comfort me or give me assurance.

If you are reading this and facing a “wilderness” today, I pray God will send someone that can strengthen your hand in Him. If everything is rosy, may you be used by God to strengthen someone’s hand in the Lord today.

 

Tis THE HUMAN TOUCH in this world that counts,

The touch of your hand and mine,

Which means far more to the fainting heart

Than shelter and bread and wine;

For shelter is gone when the night is o’er,

And bread lasts only a day,

But the touch of the hand and the sound of the voice

Sing on in the soul alway.

 

SPENCER MICHAEL FREE

My Favorite 49er!

Kiki with niece Abby on Christmas Day 2008

 

On Sunday, my wonderful elder sister, Karen(affectionately known as “Kiki”)celebrated her 49th birthday.  I am blessed and honored to have her as my biological sister, friend, confidante and sister in Christ.  She’s a great lady, and I’m glad that she’s a part of my life.  I have many precious memories of my sister from childhood to the present.  One thing that I’ll never forget from our childhood was the time we were playing “doctor” in our basement in Chicago. Karen, who was the doctor, decided that her patient(me) needed some medicine.  She had me open up my mouth,tilt my head back, and she began pouring a cup of medicine(some grape juice) down my throat using a funnel.  For some reason, I thought this was funny, and I started laughing. Suddenly, I wasn’t laughing anymore, because I started choking. When Karen saw that I was choking and had a terrified look on my face, she grabbed my hand and started dragging me up the stairs to take me to mom.  Fortunately, about half way up the stairs, I caught my breathe and the panic passed.  A more recent funny memory is the “Holy Smoke” stuffing she made for Thanksgiving in 2007. She had made her stuffing at her house on the stovetop before bringing it over to my place. She knew she had burnt the stuffing but thought it had only affected the bottom of the pot.  This was not the case, and after we had asked the blessing upon our food, one by one we began to discover that the stuffing was horrible. Then the jokes started, and it was probably the most hilarious Thanksgiving we ever had.  I could go on, but that would make for a very long post.

I am thankful though for the good and not so good times we have shared together. Keek, I hope your 49th year is the best ever.  Happy Birthday, and I love you bunches!

Men At Work

Ecclesiastes 5:3

 

For a dream cometh through the multitude of business..

On Saturday a work crew gathered at approximately 6 a.m. to begin demolition/renovation work on the building that we will be moving into later this month.  We are excited about being able to move to this new location, which is right in the heart of our downtown.  My husband and I felt very blessed and humbled by the men who volunteered to come and help with the remodeling. Many of these men were not from our local congregation, but they had a desire to be involved in working for the kingdom of God, and some of them traveled a considerable distance to come and help. We are grateful also for the ladies that took time to prepare a nice lunch and dinner for these hungry hombres. Our goal is to have our first service on October 19th, and hopefully, I’ll have more pictures to post at that time.  I’m looking forward to God doing marvelous things in our new facility!

Friday Nite Fun Factory

Friday Nite Fun Factory was the theme of this year’s youth lock in, sponsored by Revival Tabernacle of Fremont, Ca.  This is an event that our young people really look forward to going to each year.  Bryan Van Heusen and the staff of Revival Tabernacle did another incredible job of putting it all together. Here are a few pictures from my tempermental camera of some of the activities.

Brother Bryan Van Heusen, the ringmaster of ceremonies.

The youth leader from Manteca spoke to the kids about The Harvest.  He did a great job!

Some of the attendees wore fun clothes.

Some of the crowd. 

The Inflatable was a big hit.

The Egg Head Game. This was hilarious to watch.  The object of this game is to be the first to use your “pool noodle” to crack the raw egg on top of your opponent’s head while sitting in a wagon and being pulled around in a circle.  Matthew(with the blue goggles)seemed to really enjoy this one.

Alyssa and Brianna prepare to do battle in the Egghead Game.  Alyssa was victorious.

Notice the words FUN FACTORY on the wall?  I didn’t realize that’s what it said until just now. I think I’m sleep deprived.

My Husband’s Birthday

Yesterday, the 3rd was my wonderful husband’s birthday.  It’s hard to believe he turned 49 and that later this year, we will be celebrating our 25th wedding anniversary.  We were home during the day, but in the evening, we drove about 40 minutes to Benicia to meet some friends of ours who pastor in Oregon and were up visiting family.  It was a beautiful night, and since we got there a little early, we took a stroll down to Benicia’s beautiful waterfront.  Below are some pictures from birthday by the Bay.

The Birthday Man!

View of the Carquinez Bridge

Beautiful Palms

Jen and Paul along the waterfront

Paul explores

Duck duo

After dinner shot of waterfront

Two Years Already?

It’s hard to believe, but May 10th marked my two year anniversary in the blogging world.  What a fun adventure it has been!  I have not only enjoyed writing posts, but it has been great meeting so many wonderful people in the blogging world.  I have been challenged, encouraged and inspired by so many things I have read on other people’s blogs, and I hope there are those that feel the same way about my blog.  I enjoy writing, but I want it(and I ask God to use it)to be a ministry too.  Thanks to all of you that encourage me with your posts and to those who have stopped by and offered comments or suggestions here.  I’m glad our cyber paths have crossed. 

Martha Moments

 She is bubbly, wonderful with people and has the type of personality that I secretly have always longed to have. I hadn’t seen her in quite some time, so when I turned around in my pew and saw her sitting a couple of rows behind me, I had to get up and give her a hug.  As I gave her a hug and squatted down to talk to her, my knees cracked very loudly. ( a sign of my age, I guess) We both started laughing as quietly as possible since we were in the sanctuary where a Bible quizzing tournament was in progress.  We talked briefly, and then we talked later outside of the church.  I found myself opening up to her about some things I hadn’t really talked with anyone about, and it felt good to be able to confide in someone.  Later, after the tournament was over, we went out for pizza with her husband, 3 boys and some other friends from our church.  Ever since I met Martha approximately 4 years ago, I have always enjoyed being around her and her family.  They are very down to earth people and just naturally downright funny.  Somehow, they always have these true and hilarious stories to tell.  I know that God knows just exactly what we need.  He can help us with our stress when we come to Him in prayer, which He has done for me many times.  Sometimes though, maybe we just need to get together with a friend and laugh.  That is certainly what I needed on Saturday, and I thank God for the good medicine He gave me that day!